The boyfriend and I are in a period right now where we are just having a LOT of expenses, and its stressful. Between nornal (car payment, car insurance, cell phones, etc) bills and the other randoms, such as my Boyfriend or Best Friend now seeing a psychiatrist twice a month and taking medication for ADD, paying off Care Credit after a medical emergency with the dog, and a few other things–we havent been able to save anything in a while. He constantly brings up wanting to get engaged/married and feeling sad because he feels we cant afford it. We’ve decided to make a list of ‘rules’ for saving money. Please tell us what else we can be doing to save!

So far:

-limit eating out OR take out to once a week, max

-I switched my phone to Virgin and am now spending half of what I was

-we are now food shopping at Trader Joes and saving an average of $20 a week on groceries

-no more buying expensive craft beers more than ONCE a month

-More opening the windows and candles, less AC and lamps

These have been good steps but we’re still not doing GREAT. What do you guys do to pinch pennies?

We’ve been selling stuff on Amazon- we have made like $600 in the last couple months. Mostly collectibles that we have outgrown and don’t have space for anymore. You would be surprised what people will buy!

Can you set up an automatic withdrawl that moves some money into a savings account which you don’t touch unless of emergency or for something specific? I do this for my vacation fund and I don’t even notice it missing from my pay. I do $75 bi-weekly and it helps me when it’s vacation time because I don’t have to dip into my “regular” funds.

I think it’d be easier if you can lay out where your money goes every month and see if anything surprises you. Collect some data and see if you can find anything to change.

One place I’ve started saving money is by not taking the toll road home from work. The toll road is the fastest/easiest route but it costs like $2 each way. By only taking the toll road in the mornings (when it’s most important to get to work quick) I can save $2/day = $10/week.

Brining lunches to work is a big one that adds up fast, along with making coffee at home if you aren’t already doing so.

Reading adds and grocery list writing/meal planning based on what is on sale. Meal planning alone I think is important as it limits those “I need this for dinner” trips which turn into “I grabbed this for supper, this for snacks, and this just because.”

The best thing I’ve found is to spend a few weeks and really track my spending. Like, I didn’t realize how much money I was spending on my morning coffee and bagle until I tracked every time I bought it. Nor how much money I was spending on other random stuff (clothes, books, movies, etc.) Once you see what you’re spending money on, you’ll have a better idea of what you can cut.

Some other things to consider though:

-Coupons! And shop sales. If I notice, say, pasta, is on sale, I’ll buy a few extra boxes. HOWEVER, it is important to note that even with a coupon, the no-name brand might still be cheaper.

-Cook things from scratch. Pre-prepared frozen meals and such from the grocery store can be expensive.

-Cut Netflix, HuluPlus, cable, etc.

-If possible, walk or ride your bike more.

-Consider selling old clothes and other stuff you don’t need. It’s not something you can necessarily do on a regular basis, but it would help with CC debt or help you start a nest egg.

-Give yourself a weekly allowance. Take out, say, $20 in cash and that becomes the amount of money you have for the week to spend on entertainment, eating out, drinks, new clothes, etc. Once the $20 is gone, that’s it, you’re done. Alternativly, you can save your weekly allowance for something bigger.

-Another good tip I once read was to wait several days before you buy something you want. You wait something like 1 day for every $10-20 you want to spend. So if you see a new purse you want for $50, you wait 3-5 days and see if you still want it. If you want a new $600 computer, you wait a month or two. It helps curb the impulse purchases.

You know how for weight loss, they recommend a lifestyle change and not just a crash diet? I think the same goes for money. Don’t rely on willpower to deprive yourself of your favourite goodies, adopt a simpler lifestyle where spending less comes naturally. (Maybe you are living very simply, I dunno).

Live in a smaller home than you can afford. Skip the movies Friday night and take a walk together. Cut cable and Netflix, and all subscriptions. Cut the data plan from your cell phones. Ask yourself if you truly need a new tv, or dishwasher, or rug, or t-shirt, or blender, or laptop. Look at what truly brings happiness to your life and what doesn’t. Maybe fancy craft beer brings you true joy, while it doesn’t really matter if your apartment has 1 or 2 bedrooms (just for example).

I have a seperate account for savings, and it takes between 24-48 hours to transfer the money into my chequing account, so its not really “accessible”. I have a list of bills that need paying every month and as one of my bills I have transfer $xx (this amount is different for everyone obviously depending on how much you make) into savings account, that way I treat it like a bill and know the money needs transferring. Since the money in the savings account isnt really accessible, I just leave it in there once its in and it builds up alot faster than leaving it in your chequing account because its not just there to readily spend on useless stuff!

Think about your monthly expenses. Take out the amounts for the bills you MUST pay and you know exactly what they are (car payments, phone payments, car insurance, etc.). So at the beginning of the month, whenever you get paid withdraw cash and make an envelope for each of those payments. That way you are not tempted to see them in your account.

Next budget out reasonable amounts for your flexable expenses- groceries, cable, etc. Take those out and do the same. If you put $300/mo in for your groceries, and by the end of the 3rd week you have already used all your cash, you scrounge around for left overs and make due. No eating out, no making trips to the grocery store or stealing from another envelope.

Whatever is left goes into savings or an emergency fund.

You can read more about it here, as i’m sure I did a terrible job at explaining it.

ChicoryCreek: The only thing that I have to ad that I haven’t seen other bees post is that when I withdraw money I promise myself I won’t re-deposit it, that whatever amount I don’t use will go into a savings envelope for Christmas gifts. That way when I’m headed, say to the farmer’s market which only accepts cash, I only withdraw what I can afford to spend because I’m not giving it back to myself.

If you can get down to one car – wow there’s a lot of money to be saved.

Pinching pennies is not exactly fun – can you make extra money instead? Any talents or skills you could use to make a little extra? Have any time left over for a part time job? Depending on your personality – that can be more rewarding.